By: Alice Dixon, Staff Writer

It’s that time of year again where the students at MHS dread taking their ITEDs. Although most seniors don’t have to take them, the rest of the school does and for the first few hours of the school day students are stuck in a room taking tests.

ITEDs, or ITBS tests for students at FMI and Vernon, have taken place ever since anyone can remember and every year it’s the same routine. Kids hate taking tests, especially the ones that take up to 40 minutes and require you to fill in little circles. But the question is, how many students actually try their hardest on these tests?

Teachers encourage students to try their hardest, which can only benefit the score, but for some students they don’t know the answer to all of the questions, which requires them to guess.  A lot of students don’t even feel like trying, so they just fill in circles and make Christmas trees or whatever other design they can come up with. But how does this effect future classes?

Doing poorly on ITEDs at Marion could require you to take classes, such as Reading Lab. This might not necessarily be fair. What if a student is having a bad morning, woke up late, misinterprets the question, or just doesn’t know the answer? Should they have to take an extra class just because of this?

Whether we enjoy it or not, were still stuck taking ITEDs every year and it’s the same routine. Teachers trying to get us to try harder, most students ignoring the help, and filling in random circles.